[Poetry Friday] The Moon’s Love in Poetry from Portuguese Father and Son Duo Jose Jorge Letria and Andre Letria

Myra here.

It’s been awhile since I’ve joined the Poetry Friday community. To welcome the New Year and to also share our current reading theme on love, I thought I might as well step in this week, and give Fats and Iphigene a slight reprieve. Thank you to Bookseedstudio for hosting this week.

I learned about Portuguese father-and-son author-illustrator while I was a research fellow at the International Youth Library in Munich last year. When I discovered that they have a translated poetry book in English, I immediately hunted it down from the library.

The subtitle indicated that it is a collection of “poems to read with children on moonlit nights”and is dedicated to “Rodrigo who has just arrived.” Think of a gorgeously illustrated, evocative book of poems with a distinct message of love that feels very much like a grandparent reading rhythmic verse to his grandchild.

It is a love that spans the entire universe, as the moon itself has been asked to sing songs to a young one who “just arrived.”While I am generally not a fan of rhyming text, and I did feel that something may have been lost in translation here, it remains a precious book that deserves to be snuggled with.

I also love André Letria’s art – the bold bright strokes, the brilliant blues, and the images that extend outside of the page, such is its grand scale, like a love that can not ever be contained.

There is also an eerie trademark to Letria’s art that has the taste of magical realism, which is a perfect fit to Jose Jorge Letria’s fanciful imaginings filled with so much soul, like cerulean heart-songs.

This luminous book is also a tribute to the written word, to lilting verse, and to family and heritage. Find it and have the moon recite a poem to you and your little ones.

Like this:

Myra is a Teacher Educator and a registered clinical psychologist based in Singapore. She has edited five books on rediscovering children’s literature in Asia (with a focus on the Philippines, Malaysia, India, China, Japan) as part of the proceedings for the Asian Festival of Children’s Content where she serves as the Chair of the Programme Committee for the Asian Children’s Writers and Illustrators Conference. While she is an academic by day, she is a closet poet and a book hunter at heart. When she is not reading or writing about books or planning her next reads or meeting up with her book club friends, she is smashing that shuttlecock to smithereens because Badminton Is Life.

15 comments on “[Poetry Friday] The Moon’s Love in Poetry from Portuguese Father and Son Duo Jose Jorge Letria and Andre Letria”

Myra GB – this sounds & looks luminous. And it’s leading us into some sky magic close to these times when so many of us experienced Supermoon Love. I’m expecting to look for this book soon. Many appreciations.

I’m so glad for the visit today.What a gorgeous book….the idea of greeting one who has just arrived, infant, immigrant, grandparent is beautiful. I agree that this book is to be snuggled with. The illustrations are really neat. I love the otherworldly look to them. Thank you for sharing this gem. I wonder how I could get my hands on it?

Hi Linda! In the event that you are unable to find it in your local library, you can just click on the image of the book cover above and it will lead you directly to Book Depository where you can purchase it and it delivers right to your doorstep. 🙂

An enchanting and gorgeous book, I must find it and soak it in. The images are beautiful–they remind me a bit of the surrealist Spanish artist from the 30’s Remedios Varo, thanks so much for sharing it with us!